84: Beatrice Moore

She found a studio in the warehouse district in 1987; founded Art Detour and Artlink in 1988-1989; created live/work space in the dark and dusty recesses of the old La Amapola Bar; and found a much loved feral, black and white kitten at the Plasma Donor Center around the corner.

Relocated by the city to the Hassayampa Creamery Building in 1991 to make way for the Suns Arena, she helped partner Tony catch cockroaches in the compost pile there for an early exhibit at the Volksgemeinshaftshalle; took nightly walks with dogs Boscoe and Pinky through a desolate warehouse district and along the railroad tracks.

Moore bought a building on Grand Avenue in 1992, disgusted by all the thoughtless destruction of historic warehouses downtown and quickly learned about crack houses, police reports and skimpily clad women standing on street corners.

She opened Stop n' Look: A Visual Community Resource in 1994; bought more buildings along Grand from 1995 - 2004 for arts and small business uses. Bought Bragg's Pie Factory in Spring 2004 (later barely saved from the Desert Sun Motel fire next door); after oodles of stress, finished and listed the building on the National Register in 2008.

After a brief respite, she opened the Kooky Krafts Shop at Grand and 15th avenues in Fall 2009.

"Weird Garden" (in progress) by Beatrice Moore

Name five things (real or imagined) on your Inspiration Wall.1. The handicapped guy in a wheel chair who whizzes up and down Grand Avenue with a protective helmet, cheerfully smiling.2. Knowing I can escape for a few days here and there to an unusual, scenic Arizona landscape and make it all better3. Every young person trapped in an old person's body4. Those iconoclastic creatives who aren't hungering to be the next big thing (thank you for not asking us to vote for you, attend your next opening, or look at your work on FB)5. People who quit Facebook cold turkey.

What's your next big project?Coming to terms with my inner hoarder by courageously entering my very dirty studio and moving (piles and piles and piles of) everything out. Then: shaking off the dust, sweeping up the dog hair, scrubbing the floors, washing the moldy dishes, cleaning out the stinky fridge, slaying the mice, and in the process, denuding it of all its dusty, fraying & tattered ephemera - and getting set up to paint again. It's one of those things that's so daunting you don't know where to start. You spend half your life accumulating things and the other half trying to get rid of them. That still doesn't stop me from being a Thrift Store geek.

How much do you hate being asked what your next big project is?Only inasmuch as once it's in print I'll feel like I actually have to do it.

What do you want Phoenix to know about you?I want Phoenix to know that my true nature is anti-social so staying involved with community or neighborhood projects hasn't been an easy thing or necessarily a first choice.

Anything you don't want Phoenix to know about you?Most of the things I wouldn't want people to know have to do with "fear of" issues.